Abolition of Capital Punishment

An eccentric, self-made businesswoman, who ‘made three fortunes and spent five’ in the campaign against the death penalty.

Violet van der Elst (1882-1966) was a highly eccentric self-made businesswoman from a working-class background, who arguably did more than anyone else to end the barbaric practice of capital punishment. Yet she died forgotten and all but penniless, having given all she had for her cause.

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